BORDER POLICIES — In an important piece for Foreign Policy, Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, makes the case that U.S. border policies should center around investments that provide migrants a reason to stay in their home countries. In Guatemala, for example, "[s]mart policies over the next few years could determine whether migration slows over the longer term. But some of these policies will require managing migration in the interim so there are legal pathways for people to take," Selee writes. "[E]xpanding seasonal worker programs would make an enormous difference in people’s lives and serve as an alternative to unauthorized migration." Meanwhile, yesterday was a big day for the U.S. as borders reopened for nonessential travel for vaccinated  people — see Rebecca Falconer at Axios and Aaron A. Bedoya of the El Paso Times’ collections of photos from the occasion. 

BELARUS AND POLAND — Per Polish government,  spokesman Piotr Muller, more than 3,000 migrants have gathered near the Belarus-Poland border, "and more than 10,000 others across Belarus [are] ready to try and cross into Poland," report Matthias Williams and Joanna Plucinska of of Reuters. The EU, which Poland is a member of, is accusing Belarus "of encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross into the EU via Belarus, as a form of hybrid warfare in revenge for Western sanctions on [Belarus] President Alexander Lukashenko’s government over human rights abuses." Both Poland and neighboring Lithuania have stationed troops at the border to help manage the potential increase of migrant crossings. The U.S. State Department on Monday "called on the government of Belarus to immediately halt its campaign of orchestrating and coercing irregular migration flows across its borders." 

TEXAS JAILS — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) July order to arrest migrants for trespassing on the southern border has overwhelmed local courts in the state — and has yielded few convictions, Elizabeth Findell and Alicia A. Caldwell report for The Wall Street Journal. Per court records, of 1,500 trespassing arrests under Operation Lone Star, only 3% have led to convictions, while hundreds of migrants wait weeks or months in jail — 53% of those jailed have been there longer than 30 days, and 14% longer than 60 days.